Multimodal, Functional Bio-Photonic Imaging

ended

FBI fosters education of ESRs on an emerging, multimodal imaging platform and its translation into clinical and biological applications. In FBI, 15 ESRs are trained at world-leading European academic institutions and companies, thus forming strong interdisciplinary relations between industry, technical sciences and clinical end-users. Optical imaging has huge potential to address unmet clinical needs by combining non-invasive and real-time capture of biomedical information; thus enabling earlier onset of treatment, reduced therapy costs, reduced recurrence rates, and improved clinical outcomes. Up to now, optical modalities were applied as standalone techniques each targeting one biomarker. Recently it has been shown that diagnosis is significantly improved by combining different contrast mechanisms simultaneously in a multimodal approach, i.e., staging and grading of lesions is feasible. FBI proposes to combine a selection of modalities depending on the targeted disease. Suspicious lesions are analysed with optical coherence tomography, optoacoustic tomography, multi-photon tomography, and Raman spectroscopy to provide morphological, label-free microangiography, and intrinsic biochemical information, respectively. An important issue is the need for endoscopy: combining said modalities into endoscopes is challenging due to the integration of different imaging concepts, scanning and detection methods, and laser sources. Accordingly, there is a huge need for effectively translating these technical solutions to industry and clinics, which traditionally is restricted by lack of understanding of applications or limited knowledge of new technology. All these barriers are addressed by FBI through research and development of novel photonic components and systems, through educating ESRs in understanding clinical, biological and commercial challenges, and through developing tailored technical solutions and efficient translation of technology within a strong network.